This invention relates to a recording apparatus capable of recording various kinds of characters and symbols by moving a recording paper and a writing instrument, such as a ball point pen, relative to each other by actuating a keyboard section.
The applicant has previously developed one type of recording apparatus described hereinabove, comprising (a) a keyboard, provided with various kinds of character keys, symbol keys and a plurality of functional keys, (b) paper feeding device to support the recording paper and feed it either in the normal direction or in the opposite direction, (c) carriage to support writing instrument which is movable in the direction perpendicular to the direction in which the recording paper is fed, (d) carriage drive means to drive the carriage, (e) writing instrument drive means to drive each said writing instrument to bring same into and out of contact with the recording paper, (f) character and symbol pattern memory to store character and symbol pattern data, and (g) control unit operative to read out, as said character and symbol keys are actuated, the character and symbol pattern data corresponding to the actuated character and symbol keys and to control the operation of the paper feeding device, carriage drive means and writing instrument drive means in accordance with the read-out character and symbol pattern data.
In the recording apparatus of the aforesaid construction, it is possible to record characters and symbols on the recording paper by writing same by actuating the keys of the keyboard in the same manner as in an ordinary typewriter. Research conducted subsequent to the construction of this apparatus has revealed that this type of recording apparatus offers the advantage of being able to easily alter the postures in which the characters and symbols are recorded by writing same.